I’ve hit my limit, folks. With Vinland Saga actually returning this week, I have officially passed my sustainable viewing schedule capacity, and thus will be performing some harsh cuts between this and next week. Fortunately for all of you, I arrived at that realization only after watching way too many goddamn shows, and so you get to enjoy at least one mega-sized Week in Review, by way of apology for last week’s relatively brief article. The season continues to be goddamn fantastic, with O Maidens, Given, and Granbelm impressing me every week, and Vinland Saga maintaining its usual excellence after its time away. We’ve got a whole bunch of shows to get through, so let’s not waste any more time dawdling. It’s time to break down some cartoons in the Week in Review!
Tag Archives: Vinland Saga
Summer 2019 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective
I’m pretty excited about this season, you guys. By the end of spring, my active anime roster had diminished to basically just JoJo, leaving me wondering whether it was a genuinely weak anime season, or that I had simply lost my capacity for joy. But based on this summer’s fantastic slate of premieres, the problem definitely wasn’t me. Screw you, spring! How dare you make me doubt my sunny disposition!
Anyway. The spring season’s crimes aside, this past week has offered a satisfying array of anime premieres in a wide variety of genres, leaving me with much to watch and much else to recommend. Big shonen titles like Fire Force and Dr. Stone had premieres ranging from solid to transcendent, while high-profile adaptations like Vinland Saga and O Maidens have deftly captured the strengths of their source material. From idol shows to space adventures to cop dramas and beyond, the summer season is brimming with worthy anime – and having marathoned my way through nearly all of them, I’m eager to pass my findings on to you. My work on Anime News Network’s preview guide means I’ve already written extended reviews of basically everything, and it’s time at last to condense those reams of text into a highly reductive and hopefully informative breakdown, starting with the season’s most brightly glimmering gems, and running down to its most odorous piles of garbage. Let’s get to it!
Summer 2019 Season Preview
How the fuck is it already time for another season preview? It was February like three weeks ago, the spring season can’t possibly be ending now. What did I even do this spring? What am I doing with my life?
Yes folks, it’s time again for a season preview, and all the existential dread and recrimination which accompanies it. This season has gone by in a flash, and though our endless secession of days is certainly a cause for concern, we can at least console ourselves with the prospect of new cartoons to enjoy. While the spring season concentrated its highlights into a small number of shows, and was defined mostly by the titanic presence of directors like Shinichiro Watanabe and Kunihiko Ikuhara, the summer is looking to be much more diffuse in its highlights. There are fewer sure hits, but plenty of shows with at least a dull glimmer of potential, giving me a whole bunch to talk about. As usual, I won’t be highlighting or summarizing every single upcoming show – there are plenty of sites you can check for that, and not much for me to add. Instead, I’ll just be emphasizing the shows I’m genuinely looking forward to, as well as my generally staff or source material-related reasons for that excitement. Starting with the season’s brightest prospects, let’s break down the stars of the coming season!
Vinland Saga – Volume 1
I’ll admit, looking at the color cover of Vinland Saga’s first volume did not inspire much confidence. The character art’s thick black lines, largely realistic proportions, and very stiff posing all brought to mind some kind of western comic anthology, or perhaps one of those “bringing history to life” educational comics designed to Make Learning Fun. The digital shading was just plain hideous, and there’s what, an actual lens flair pasted onto the subject’s dagger? All in all, the cover included enough misguided visual decisions that I was deeply uncertain whether I’d get much out of this volume at all.